September 26, 2014
An award-winning website of inspiring stories that spark social action and build community.
June 14, 2016
As a city gentrifies, who gets pushed out? And what happens when they push back?
February 25, 2015
Meet the RISD grad who started a venture to promote self-love for young girls of color.
November 10, 2015
Jyoti Sharma opens up about blending “Modern Technology, Traditional Wisdom, and People’s Participation.”
September 26, 2014
25 stories told by community leaders boldly and creatively tackling social issues in Providence.
Recent Stories on Sparks
September 5, 2016
"Instead of coming back to campus with a set agenda to start a project of my own, I decided to consciously take a step back and learn from people who were already doing work in the community."
Lauren Maunus '19 is a Social Innovation Fellow, pursuing a venture designed to connect low-income communities with fresh, accessible local food.
August 11, 2016
"My name is Gwendolene Mugodi and I am a writer and the founder of Paivapo Storytellers, a movement that aims to provide better access to local, good quality literature to the children in Zimbabwe--and eventually beyond. Our work would not be complete without the help of local artists like Abel Zvorufura who I met through the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. As two different artists we spent about a month and a half going back and forth on this book until we got to a place we were both happy with. I look forward to sharing that full book in a few months, but for now here's a little bit about Abel and why he does what he does."
June 30, 2016
"I believe BRYTE to be an organization centered on radical love. On one level love means belief—a specific belief in young refugee students of color to change the world, maybe even to imagine a new world. On another level, love means breaking past common formulas—understanding the work and our role in it for what it is."
Ricardo Jaramillo is one of six coordinators of BRYTE (Brown Refugee Youth Tutoring & Enrichment), a program that pairs over 125 student tutors with refugee youth using a one-on-one, in-home tutoring model.
June 24, 2016
“The experience of running this program has changed the way I look at this issue dramatically… It’s taught me that rehabilitation is possible but extremely hard.”
Elena is a rising junior concentrating in Public Policy. She is also a participant of the TRI-Lab program, an initiative that brings together Brown students, faculty, and community practitioners to engage with complex social issues and develop solutions to these issues. The inspiration for the following story comes from the spring 2016 TRI-Lab, "Designing Education for Prison Health," which attempts to design better resources for health education within the criminal justice system.
June 20, 2016
Methma is a Volunteer Representative for Swearer Tutoring and Enrichment in Math and Sciences (STEMS). As a VR, Methma helps plan weekly meetings for the tutors, which are intended to provide Brown tutors with tools to work more effectively, through tutoring skills, knowledge of current education policy, discussions on the role of a tutor in a classroom, or information about the Providence Public School system. She is currently tutoring in a physics class.
June 14, 2016
When Foreclosure Sparks a Movement
Part 2: Malchus Mills
Roline Burgison and Malchus Mills have struggled to find stability in their gentrifying city of Providence. Foreclosed on and forced out of their homes, they came upon the Tenants and Homeowners' Association at DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality), which fights to keep families in their homes, educates tenants about their rights, and organizes on a state-wide level to protect low-income communities of color from the injustice of displacement. Roline and Malchus found a home in and through DARE's activism.
June 14, 2016
Providence is home to one of the most established slam communities in the country—a vibrant network of poets and artists who gather under the banner of the Providence Poetry Slam.
ProvSlam Youth, which mentors and support emerging poets, amplifies young voices and transforms lives by “equipping those who have stories with the means to tell them.”
And one young poet--who goes by the name of Sin Seven-- is on a winning streak.
He’s won every youth competition he’s been in this year, earning him a spot on the five-person team representing Providence (and the state of Rhode Island) in the Brave New Voices international slam poetry competition in Washington, DC this July.
But there was a time when he didn't always win...
June 14, 2016
When Foreclosure Sparks a Movement
Part 1: Roline's Story
Roline Burgison and Malchus Mills have struggled to find stability in their gentrifying city of Providence. Foreclosed on and forced out of their homes, they came upon the Tenants and Homeowners' Association at DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality), which fights to keep families in their homes, educates tenants about their rights, and organizes on a state-wide level to protect low-income communities of color from the injustice of displacement. Roline and Malchus found a home in and through DARE's activism.
June 13, 2016
Lauren Maunus '19 is starting a bold new venture.
Its goal: To help eliminate food waste and bring healthy, affordable food to "food swamps" in Rhode Island and beyond.
June 13, 2016
"I think about opening my mouth to call out goodbye, or to salute her in a traditional sign language farewell. Instead, I stand silently and smile."
Sally Hosokawa is a Community Fellow for Writers’ Group, a Swearer Center Community Program that facilitates creative writing workshops for adults with developmental disabilities. She studies literary translation in the Comparative Literature Department.